Au grooving and dewetting on KCl whiskers side walls and corners

We studied the solid state dewetting process of Au thin film deposited on single crystalline KCl whiskers. For this purpose, we fabricated an array of KCl whiskers grown on porous substrates under well-defined humidity and temperature conditions. Single crystalline KCl whiskers with a very high aspect ratio, perfect rectangular shape, and (100) facets orientation were obtained. The whiskers were subsequently coated with thin Au layer using e-beam and thermal evaporators. We used this unique structure and crystallography to study the dewetting processes of Au thin film with the emphasis on the difference between whiskers side facets and corners. After heat treatment at 350^oC it was clearly observed that dewetting processes occur much faster at the corners than on the side facets. The unique dewetting morphologies and orientation relationships between Au and KCl at the whiskers corners were studied and compared to the flat KCl (100) substrates.